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Kroger Confronts Obamacare by Reducing Employee Hours

When the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare in June, many businesses were left to face difficult decisions. Some small businesses determined that they would need to eliminate certain benefits or reduce full-time employees and add more part-time employees to save on expenses. In some cases, small business owners determined that they would not be able to expand their workforce at all.

However, large businesses are also feeling the pressure. Last month, Darden Restaurants, the world’s largest casual dining chain which runs Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants among others, announced that they would test limiting employee hours to avoid the costs of Obamacare. They said that this reduction in hours is "just one of the many things we are evaluating to help us address the cost implications healthcare reform will have on our business.” Now, Kroger grocery stores have announced that they will be doing the same.

Kroger is a large grocery store chain which employes nearly 350,000 people and had sales sales of $90 billion last year. Last week, employees found out that, starting in 2013, there will be some changes for employees. These scheduling changes will be made to account for increased costs due to Obamacare. Employees who are not already considered full time will have their hours limited whereas, now, they are allowed to work as many hours as needed in the store. For many employees, this means that they will need to find a second job or another job altogether. The Kroger employee who leaked the memo said that “Hard-working employees of Kroger and Darden are among the thousands of casualties of Obamacare. And these hourly workers are far from being members of the evil “1%”, and this is only the beginning. Vote accordingly in November. Repeal Obamacare.”

With Obamacare reducing employer freedom, they will have to make difficult decisions. With a decision between reducing employee hours or reducing the number of employees entirely, businesses are doing what they need to do to survive in this new econoomy. This is not a question of politics, it’s reality, the new reality unless Obamacare is overturned.

Krogers saying it's having to cut back its workers' hours because of Obamacare is almost literally a joke. They have a long history of hiring people at reduced hours, since long before Obama was president. The one where I worked in southwest Virginia in the late 90s wouldn't give you more than 15 hours a week unless you were in management or the deli. Some weeks you got all of six hours.

http://BoyCottBadEmployersNow.intuitwebsites.com/ The previous quote is ludicrous. The best way to change the tactics of an unscrupulous employer is to boycott their business. Darden Restaurants dropped 37% after announcing hours reduction. The practice has now stopped.

RAIN, MUD.FECES OR BLOOD? Unions improved the standard of living for millions of Americans. To have that effort sullied by ignorant town criers such as yourself, is unfathomable and cannot go unchallenged. If you fear unions and want workers to continue losing livable wages. To go without healthcare because greedy Corporations refuse to do the right and decent thing, then you are the one who is being a bad American. Fools run around screaming " the sky is falling". The rest of us ignore the likes of you and try to make this a better country...in spite of you.

Amazon has started its entry into the healthcare industry, pitching hospital executives on its distribution of hospital supplies. Its initial successes, challenges, customer feedback and competition are all promising signs for its ability to reduce costs in healthcare.

On behalf of our activist community, I urge you to contact your senators and representative and ask them to support the Repeal Insurance Plans of the Multi-State Program (RIP MSP) Act, S. 2221 and H.R. 4664, introduced by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.). The bills would repeal the ObamaCare Multi-State Plan Program, which is a pathway to a public option.

Way back in 2012, the United States Supreme Court, in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, issued a landmark ruling that upheld the supposed constitutionality of ObamaCare by justifying the individual mandate as a proper exercise of Congress’s taxing power. This is what allowed ObamaCare to continue to be a drain on our economy and the American taxpayer.

FreedomWorks Vice President of Legislative Affairs made the statements below on the recent developments at the White House concerning health insurance. Concerning Thursday’s executive order about association health plans, Jason Pye said: